Sick chicken in the house, terrible twos, a baby that has an aversion to sleep and a mother on the edge of insanity...

I usually try my best to write positive thoughts and even some helpful posts, but sometimes you just have to rant. These past few weeks have been quite taxing on, both, myself and Adrian, mostly because we are sleep deprived! Our baby girl Mia has taken it upon herself to slowly but surely drive us insane and she's succeeding. How long can a human being go on without sleep I wonder? More often than not I find myself sitting on the couch, desperately trying to keep my eyes open, which probably makes me look like an owl on a bad caffeine trip. I'm daydreaming a lot and simply can't focus on anything for very long. I'm a lot less patient than I used to be and have a harder time dealing with Noah, who has picked this difficult time in our lives to hit us with the full brunt of the terrible twos. To torture us even more, I'm sure. They're tag-teaming us, and man they do NOT know the word mercy. He doesn't listen; his answer to everything is NO! and he's spending a big part of the day on the time-out chair. That doesn't keep him from getting off and going right back to doing what earned him the time-out in the first place though.

I can honestly say that I haven't been this exhausted and frustrated like... EVER! On bad nights, Mia wakes up every hour and won't stop screaming until I take her out of her crib. Last week, Noah - who usually sleeps through the night - had a cold and a stuffy nose that kept waking him up as well. One night I had to get out of bed a grand total of 11 times, and just to add the cherry on top, Mia is also an early riser and is up at 5 am sharp every morning. All the waking and crying at night must tire them out though, because they do pass out in the most random places in the middle of playing or eating, which is quite comical, but also makes me resent them for being able to just collapse wherever they are.

Oh, to be a child again. I was doing the dishes the other day and kept thinking to myself, What if I just put my head down right here on the counter and get a little shut eye? It certainly works for the kids. Back when I only had one child it wasn't that hard to deal with sleepless nights, even though I thought it couldn't get any worse at the time. I had no idea what was coming for me. When your baby went down for a nap you simply took one too. Now that I've got two, there's no way I'm getting a nap in because they do not nap at the same time. Needless to say, I'm looking like a freaking zombie most of the time. Sometimes I don't even remember getting up to feed the baby until I find myself crawling back into my own bed thinking, Where am I coming from and what have I done? Every evening I put them to bed hoping that this will be the night that she finally sleeps longer than a couple of hours on end. It was nice when she only woke up twice one night, I actually woke the next morning feeling refreshed.

In Mia's defense, she is teething and two of her bottom teeth came in last week, which is probably giving her some discomfort. I keep hoping that once those teeth have fully pushed through, she will sleep longer. What can I say? Being a parent is tough as nails and it doesn't seem to get any easier. I look at them a lot thinking, I love you like crazy but, God, how nice would a week off be? But there is no such thing so you just keep going and going and going, driven only by the primal urge to survive another day. You don't shower as often as you used to - bath-time is out of the question- and you don't have to worry about wearing tights under your jeans in the winter because the fur on your legs keeps you warm enough. Plucking your eyebrows? Nah, I'm thinking of giving the unibrow a go. Might set a new trend and I'm pretty sure you'd all thank me for it. Washing your hair every day? Meh, what are ponytails for? If you've managed to get through the day without strangling your children, kept the house somewhat clean and managed to put a meal on the table, your right up there with Wonder Woman and you should be darn proud of yourself. Here's a picture of myself that I took at about 10am this morning. I call it the exhaustion-selfie! Pitiful sight, isn't it?

To make matters worse, my van has let me down and is in dire need of repair, which will cost us over a $1,000 CAD. I hate it when things like that happen just when you were hoping to pay off your credit card. How in the world are you supposed to get out of the hole, when it feels like someone is standing over you relentlessly throwing dirt on your head? Anyways...

...One of our chickens has taken ill and is currently residing in the house in Rocky's old dog crate. We managed to take it to the vets, where it was given a shot free of charge. I would love to save it and if separating it from the others (who have turned quite mean and have started pecking at her the second she showed weakness) and keeping it in the warm house is the only way, then that's what we'll do. But it's still a pain, because we simply don't have space in the house as it is, and she does smell a lot. She has diarrhea and doesn't eat or drink by herself, and it's just one more chore to add to the list of things I don't want to be dealing with. I do hope the little sista is going to recover - stronger than ever - and will go back into the coop ready to give those mean chicks a piece of her mind. Girls can be so cruel!

So that's what's happening on the homestead right now. Mayhem and chaos and no end in sight. But that's life I suppose and no matter how bad it gets, you've got to pick yourself up, take each day as it comes and do your best. There's always the possibility you'll win the lottery some day or that your children will suddenly decide they have tortured you long enough and will turn into perfect little angels from one day to the next.

On a happier note! My Kickstarter campaign is past the halfway point and my project is currently 55% funded. I have high hopes that this dream will soon become a reality and even if it doesn't work out, I know I have done everything I can. At least I tried, right? That's all one can do nowadays. My brother-in-law has made this cute little poster for me, that is now plastered on every bulletin board in the area.

I have advertised on every social media platform I'm involved in, not to mention the hundreds of private messages and emails I have written to pretty much everyone I know. But once again, I'm asking for your help and support. If you didn't know about my dream of self-publishing a children's book and have just now heard about it, or you were thinking about making a donation but haven't gotten around to it yet; Please, NOW is the time! Every dollar counts! With 14 days still remaining there is still a big chance that I will reach my goal, and you could be part of helping me make this long term dream of mine come true. Check out my project, share my link like there's no tomorrow and please make a donation if you can. 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/539964571/a-lovingly-created-childrens-book-for-my-kids-and?ref=discovery

It would mean so much to me and our little family. We're on the homestretch, guys! Let's keep at it and make this amazing project happen. Thank you so much!!!